Bethlehem Crèche

By entering the radio competition Maheshi and I have been able to win a Yamaha keyboard for the Creche!! This was one of the things that the Creche wanted as they like music and instruments. We will be donating the Keyboard the third week after we come back from winter holidays which will be in February.

We will also be working collaboratively together to get the walls at the Creche painted before the end of February!

Bethlehem Crèche

We made another visit to the Bethlehem Crèche this week. We did several activities. We planned to teach them the alphabet, numbers and animal names in English using the books that were made for them last year. Some of the children knew them already and were able to say it well.

 

After this we changed to some drawing them, this is one of the activities they enjoy doing the most. During the visit Maheshi and I also went to the playground to take pictures of the playground so we can plan the painting session with the group after the winter break. The goal for the service group for this year is to completely repaint the playground walls and the playground equipment. Before starting the task has to be planned out clearly about what will be needed, resources, funds, transportation etc. Therefore, Maheshi and I have made sure that we will have everything organized.

Maheshi and I have also entered a radio competition where we can different items such as a Yamaha keyboard. By doing this we are hoping that we will win it for the Creche so that we can donate it to Sr. Florella and the kids!

Bethlehem Creche

For the past few weeks Maheshi and I have been working collaboratively together in order to plan activities for our service group. As a leader, i have been actively involved in the community and service project. We have been able to visit the children twice and they have been able to come to OSC.

When they came to OSC, Maheshi and I had organized with the Primary Music teacher to do some games and dance moves which was greatly appreciated by the children that came that time. We are planning to this again over the next month, so that we can undertake new challenges in teaching the children new english songs and dance moves. Our initial goal is to do as many activities with the children and introduce new environments to them to brighten their lives. I believe that we are doing a great job with this at the moment since the effort we put into planning can be really shown through how much the children enjoy us coming over.

Sadly, last week we were not able to go to their place since they were sick and had the measles. We were supposed to teach them a nursery rhyme (twinkle twinkle little star) and have them do some drawing. However this has now been moved till the next time we see them, which is hopefully soon!

Basket Ball

 I tried out for basketball from the third week of October since I thought I would be able to travel, however I have decided that I am not going to do this SAISA but instead I am going to do Girls Football or Track & Field.

During the few trainings that I went to I was able to show commitment to the sport, collaboration with others, and a undertake of a new challenge. I have never really done basketball before, but with the few trainings I went to I was able to develop some of the basic skills. These skills may help me in the future if I ever decide to try out for basketball another time, this way I can use the skills I have been learning to strengthen my weaknesses.

Motocross - Action

For the last month I have been training for motocross every Sunday afternoon in Kaluagala. This has been my goal from the beginning of the year and I have been able to stick to this. Overall my motocross skills have been improved by getting help from a motocross rider called Haren. He has given me small pointers which has helped me with improving my skills. For example he has said that I need to do some excercise apart from just driving in order to strengthen my stamina, I have therefore gone running a couple of times each week, however a lot of time is not needed, just approximately 30 minutes.

The track I have been practicing at consists of 6 jumps and i have been able to clear 5 out of 6 which is pretty good seeing can only go once a week. Below is a picture from the last time I went training. I will also be uploading a video next time in my blog.

I am aiming at clearing all the jumps before the December holidays, I think this can be possible if I really take it to the next level. My training has shown commitment and perseverance throughout the last month since I have been doing it every Sunday.

Some other hints that Haren gave me was that I need to work on my position while I am in the air during a jump, he said that i need to bend my back a little more and keep the motocross steady. Overall, my motocross riding skills are improving quite quickly and I am really enjoying the thrilling experience.

Pinhole Photography

Since the second block of after school activities have started, I am no longer doing Pinhole Photography as it is not offered any longer by Mr. Lockwood. However it was a great activity, which taught me new skills such as how much light the "camera" should be exposed to and how long it should be held there for. Below is one of the pictures I was able to take, which is of myself (it has been inverted):

I am quite proud of this photograph since i managed to get it quite focused. There are quite a lot of details in the photo which means the time I disposed the camera to light was quite efficient. This after school activity has been part of my creativity for CAS which means that now that it is over I have to come up with something new to do for creativity. I was thinking about maybe learning the basics of playing guitar, since this would be a development of new skills.

Goals and Involvement

What will I learn from the goals that I have set for the year?

1.       By taking part in a SAISA I will increase my awareness of my own strength and areas for growth, work collaboratively with others, show perseverance and commitment in the activity and develop new skills. I have decided that I will definitely do football this year again as I really enjoyed it last year. This way I can improve the skills I have already learnt.

2.       By practicing motocross riding I will be involved in action but also develop new skills and increase my awareness of my strengths as a rider.  I might also be able to develop new skills by practicing.

3.       As a leader in Bethlehem Crèche I am undertaking a new challenge since I have to help members in the CAS to understand what is going on. To do this I, along with the other leader have to work collaboratively with each other in order to plan and initiate activities for our CAS activity. Our community and service program is engaged with issues of global importance since we are helping out children less fortunate than us.

4.       I was going to practice playing the guitar but instead of doing this for creativity I have decided to join pinhole photography as I thought this would lead to undertaking a new challenge and showing perseverance and commitment in the activity.

So far for the year I have been involved in:

Bethlehem Crèche:  We have only had the community and service activity twice so far, but I and Maheshi have worked collaboratively with each other and planned and initiated activities. When we first met we discussed what the goals were for the whole year and they were as follows:

·         Paint the walls/equipment at the Creche

•   Make a garden for the school 
• Plan to raise money throughout the year if needed
• Have a Christmas party with the children
• Teach them some nursery songs and dance moves 
• Donate things that they might need at the Creche.

We have already raised some money from selling “spirit bags and ribbons” on sports day (September 7^th) which was a way of increasing awareness of our service program. We did this through planning and initiating what we had to do in order to get results. We sold ribbons in the house colors and bags which consisted of balloons, scrape paper, rope and ribbons. It was quite a success but we are going to sell the left over’s when the primary has their own sports day in order to increase spirit!

I have also been involved in Pinhole photography for the past 2 weeks which is held every Tuesday after school by Mr. Lockwood as our supervisor. We are only 5 members involved in this activity but we have already been able to work collaboratively with each other, undertaken a new challenge, and developed new skills. It is a great activity which helps us with photography as a whole. During the past two lessons we were able to take our own shots by using a can and exposing it to light towards an object or person or whatever we want. It is quite difficult to know how much time you have to expose the can to light; however this is something we will practice and learn as time comes. I managed to take quite a good shot of myself, I will upload a picture of it as soon as possible.

Sports Day

We had a school sports day on September 7th, and I, as a member of the Red house and a senior, tried to participate in all the sports that I enjoyed. I played football mainly. Of course, our main goal was to win the tournament to enjoy the tournament itself too.I personally interacted with everyone possible, not only within the red house, but also with inter-house members. I belive sports always bring people together much closely :)

Also during sports day Maheshi, Joyce and I were selling spirit bags for the primary students in order to make the day more cheerful. Below is a pictures of us preparing the bags for each house color. Each spirit bag contained balloons, ribbons, cloth and small length of rope. 

We didn't make a lot of profit but we will also be selling the spirit bags during the Primary Sports day which is coming up after December holidays sometime. The money will be used to help the children at the Bethlehem Creche. By doing these spirit bags I showed commitment to the community service I take part in

Grade 12 Begins!

Grade 12 has just begun and it is now time for all of us to make new goals for the year. My goals for this year are as follows:

1. Try out one of the following: Volleyball, Football or Track and Field. (Action)
2. Practice more motocross riding. (Action)
3. Participate in Bethlehem Creche on Thursdays as a leader. (Service)
4. Try learning to play guitar. (Creativity)

 

Creativity: “arts and other experience that involve creative thinking”

 

Action: “physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the Diploma Program”

 

Service: “an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected”

(from OSC Creativity Action & Service Handbook 2010-2012)

These are the aims I am sure I want to participate in, but there might be some more as the year progresses.

End of year reflection :)

Action:

Over the past months, I have been involved in the action which is actually my favorite since I love sports. By participating in SAISA football I was undertaking a new challenge by trying this new sport. Overall I was able to develop skills while also strengthening old skills.

I have loved running since I was small so by participating in track and field I was able to work collaboratively with the team and I was able to increase my awareness of my track and field skills.

Service:

I have been involved in service activity for the whole year starting of with DAWG where I was encouraged to work collaboratively not only with the group member but with different organizations. Most of my time involved fund raising which involved a lot of planning and initiating activities. By participating in Bethlehem Crèche I have also been engaged with issues of global importance. There are a number of children which get neglected from the society they are in if they don’t have a proper family or if their mother or father is in jail. Also as a leader for the Bethlehem Crèche I was able to undertake a new challenge since I have never actually been a leader for a service activity.

Creativity:

I have not been involved in a lot of creativity this year however I have developed previous skills and increased my awareness of my own skills such as painting on week without walls trip and painting the back drop for the primary production at the beginning of the year. I will be focusing more on creativity next year. For example I am planning to take part in pinhole photography or sewing.

Overall it has been a great year and I have learnt a lot of different things due to Service, Action and Creativity. It has made me grow as a student and to learn how to manage time properly.  I am looking forward to another year of CAS where I can show my strengths to my community. 

Key Club Meeting

Today during lunch at 12.30 in the SMPR, Key Club had an meeting with all the CAS leaders for each community and service project. During the meeting we collected the projected reports from the leaders. The President (Damien) also went ahead to tell everyone what we are going to do over the following month which are:


1. New Director- Harshini Karunarathne
2. Project Report should be given monthly to the Key Club from all Community and Service Projects
3. There will be a website set up and an appointed technical crew.
4. Hee Soo will control the overall website.


The leaders that attended today were: Maheshi, Charity, Hee Soo, Harini, Sky, Alex, Aparna, Terunaga, Damien, Uthpala, Avin, Conzi, Rasmus, Bharat, Camille, Antonia, Keisha, Mo, Uphanda, Harshini, Iain and me. 


As for me I now have to keep the club materials organized and these items on file:

• inventory of all key club property
• club bylaws
• key club guidebook
• district by laws
• minutes of all regular club meeting and board meetings
• names and addresses of present key club officers
• copies of current and past key club magazines and district publications
• collected committee reports from committee chairmen
• list of committee chairman and members
• clubs past achievement reports
• clubs past monthly reports

Due to the key club a I am now undertaking a new challenge  and showing commitment to the role I have to carry out.

Food and Fun Fair

Food and Fun fair started and 3.00pm and went on till around 6.30pm.

For Prison Babies we wanted to do some fund raising which we managed to do by having Young Jun as the Balloon man and the other members helping sell candy floss. Our goal was to raise a reasonable amount of money for the Bethlehem Creche, the childcare center that we are now working with. We managed to make around $100 which was an alright amount of money, however this was excluding the money we had to pay for the candy floss machine. We still made some profits that we can use for our CAS!

We had divided our members up into small groups so that we could help out to sell at the candy floss machine at different times... However Maheshi and I (The new leaders) ended up standing at the candy floss machine for quite some time since some of our members did not show up to help out, this showed how we: worked collaboratively with each other  and that we showed commitment in the activity.

Overall I think that it went quite well and that we should do something similar next year during food and fun fair!

SAISA TRACK AND FIELD --> NEW DELHI

This was my third time I did track and field; it was held at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India. I was quite excited for this season as I tend to do well, however this year it proved to be a bit different. We had 6 weeks of intense training with our coach Mr Gresham who taught us a lot about the season and his personal experience through the years. 


The team was picked quite early as everyone needed time to practice their individual events; this kept me motivated to keep coming to all the practices that I could since then I wouldnt be able to say that "at least I didnt stop trying to make the team" However I did not give up and this has shown perseverance and commitment since i attended all the training after school and on saturday with determination. Grade 11 was the oldest grade during the whole tournament which is why all of us had to show leadership to the younger ones and that as seniors of the team we had to work collaboratively. 
During training I was asked by some of the smaller grades to help them with high jump as it was one of my better events and one that I enjoyed. It increased my awareness of my own strength in high jump and it helped me grow as person since the juniors looked up at me as a role model and as a person who could give them good advice in improving. 

Before SAISA (Camille, Rasmus, David, Damien, Manuel and I) were made the team leaders. We had to keep track of all the passports and take care of everyone during travelling and during the tournament. We had to work collaboratively as we had to be role models for the younger team members. 


This was not my best year in track and field as I only made the finals for one of my individual events which was high jump (which i came 6th). However, overall we got placed in both relays (5th and 6th) and the Overseas school of Colombo got 6th out of 8. We had expected a better place but the schools we competed against were really good. I do think we should be proud though to have won the sportsmanship award which proved that we always had enthusiasm and that we were cheering on the other teams. 


I am hoping to do track and field next year but it depends on how much work I will have during 12th grade! :) If I don't then I think this year was a great learning experience for me and everyone else on the team! Go Geckos!

Track and Field

Track and Field is coming up on just 2 days!

I feel that as a team we have worked really hard in order to achieve our endurance for the actual competition (March 25-27).

I have improved quite a lot in my field events that I will be doing which means I will do well in the actual competition. I have been able to beat my personal records during training which means my goals have been fulfilled.

For long jump, high jump, 100m and 200m I beat my personal records.

• Long jump I jumped 4.50m
• High jump I jumped 1.35m
• 100m 14.31sec
• 200m 30.23 sec

I really hope that we all do well in New Delhi and that we are a competative and strong team!


My goals for the competition are:

1. Help a team member if they need advice
2. Cheer for everyone
3. Do my best

These goals will be acheived during the tournament, so for now I can't write anything else about Track and Field.

Bethlehem Creche

Since last month I have been taking part in the Bethlehem Creche on thursday afternoons for community service. The Bethlehem Creche is a community and service program that focuses on helping children in a kindergarten school in Battaramulla. It is a great oppurtunity for me to help children in my community to get a better life and to interact with them. We have only visited the school once, and it seems as though they need to paint the play ground, get some new equiptment and a safer environment for the children; because of this all member of this CAS are going to have a fund raiser at the food and fun fair which will be this Saturday (March 12th). We will be selling cotton candy, have face painting and balloon figures which we will sell for a suitable price. We will then use that money to get equiptment and things to improve the school. Maheshi and me have also become two of the main leaders, so we will have to help everyone and keep everything organized.

Track & Field

For the past 2 weeks I have been attending all the track and field practices. This has really helped me to build up my endurance. I have also oficially made the team which was one of my goals. This year the track and field is going to be in New Delhi, India. Before we go there I really want to improve my high jump, long jump and shot put skills since those will be some of the events I will be taking part in.


The events that the coach want me to take part in are:
-100m
-400m
-800m
-high jump
-shot put
-both relays (100x4 and 400x4)


I am not really a long distance runner which is why i would have prefered to have done just 100m and 200m but I guess I will have to challenge myself and try some longer distance. I also want to do long jump since that is one of my best events, but will see how it goes.


I really hope that I will be at my top when we go for the actual competition because I want to do my best and beat my personal records.

Key Club: First one in Sri Lanka

As of today, February 24, 2011 the Overseas School of Colombo has officially joined the Service program called the Key Club.  The Key Club "is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. It is a student-led organization whose goal is to teach leadership through serving others. Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International group. Each local Key Club is, in turn, sponsored by a local Kiwanis club." We were joined by Trevor Rajaratnam, Daya Ratnayake, Mrs Williams, Mr Coles and Ms Shameela in order to carry out the ceremony.
 

 It is Ms Shameela who has encouraged all of us (CAS leaders) to join the club. Some of us have also been nominated as either President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Editor or Directors. Below are the people who got voted for the positions:

President: Damien Martin
Vice President: Harini Liyanage
Secretary: Annie Gillstedt (me)
Treasurer: Terunaga Tamura
Directors: Hee Soo, Maheshi, Sandushi, Avin, Keisha and Alex.

 I thought that the installation ceremony went really well. We were all told our individual duties and responsibilities in the Key Club which will help us personally become better leaders and youths. The installation was done by Daya Ratnayake which was the nation representative. The President, Vice President, Treasurer and the Secretary were all given small badges with their position written on them.


My responsibilities as a secretary are as follow: 

• Prepare and distribute at least three newsletters to club secretaries and at least 10 monthly newsletters to the district board. Cover important topics in a timely manner, including:
  o Role of club secretary
  o Club roster collection
  o Upcoming district events
  o Other responsibilities/duties
• Develop materials for and conduct a club secretary’s workshop at the district convention at the end of his/her term of office.
• Distribute copies of all district board minutes to district board officers and the Kiwanis International Office, preferably within 15 days of the board meeting.
• Attend the following gatherings:
  o District convention at the beginning and end of term
  o Secretary’s forum at the international convention
  o All district board meetings
• Present a secretary’s report at all official board meetings.
• Submit a district convention report (including contest winners and election results) to the Kiwanis International Office, preferably within 30 days of the convention.
• Produce and distribute a club officer directory to clubs and district officers within specified time limits, and produce addendums to the club officer directory as needed.
• Demonstrate a strong relationship with the board liaison by sending all copies of the district secretary’s board newsletter to the liaison and communicating at least once per month with him/her.
• Strive to make all communications timely, well written, free of mistakes and follow the Key Club graphics standards. 

I think this will be a great opportunity for me to become a better leader, which is one of my goals for joining the Key Club.  I am also willing to put a lot of effort into this and keep everything organized and up to date as a secretary.

Track and Field

Track and Field started on the 15th of February and since then I have attended 2 of the practices. The goal of track and field is to improve an athletes skills, endurance, and personal bests. Before I started track I thought about some goals that I want to achieve during the season which are as follows:
1) Beat my personal records in high jump, long jump, 100 and 200 meter sprint
2) Encourage others if they are struggling with something
3) Become a better athlete
4) Focus on techniques
5) Try my best through out the season
6) Make the team

From the 2 practices I have attended I know that I have to build up my stamina since I haven't done that much sports since the football season except for motocross. I also need to practice my high jump and long jump techniques since I have forgotten some of them. However I believe this will be achieved during the 6 weeks of training.Overall I hope this will be a great season and I will keep the blogging about my achievements!

Week Without Walls

From January 24th to 28th my grade (11) went down south to Hambantota located about 6 hours away from Colombo. Our reason for going was to have have community service in some of the rural schools there. The grade was split into two groups: the shi group and sha group, in other words 11.1 and 11.2. Week Without Walls is a chance for students to learn outside the class room and to help the community around them. It is a great activity that enhances the following things from a student:

1. Leadership skills
2. Work Cooperatively and productively
3. Stick to an Activity
4. Understanding of the community around us
5. Organizacion
6. Time management
7. Discipline

Before we went we were asked to come up with some goals that we wanted to achieve. I thought about my goals for a long time and in the end they became the following:

1. Become a better leader.
2. Work cooperatively and productively with other students.
3. Bond with the children at the school.
4. Enhance my creativity skills in the mural activity.

From all the goals that I have listed I think i was able to achieve all of them. I became a better leader by helping out with the painting of the mural and taking part in our concert that we had to perform to the children on the last day. I worked cooperatively and productively the whole time we were at the school and helped out when needed. The children at the school were really shy at first but then as I got to play with them, for example draw with them i thought it was really nice and enjoyable. This way I was able to achieve my goal to bond with the children at the school. My creativity skills were improved since we had a theme which was outer space and because of this I was able to practice my painting skills and contribute to the mural group and the school.

I really enjoyed the whole week in Hambantota with the whole class and the teachers which attended our trip. The teachers inluded Ms Flynn, Ms Shameela, Ms Fernando, Mrs Williams, Mr De Silva and Mr Lockwood. They all helped us with the planning and the organizacion before we went.